Portugal's Socialists lose absolute majority

Portugal's ruling Socialist Party won the country's general election on Sunday, although it lost its absolute majority, exit polls suggest. The Socialists garnered an estimated 36.5 percent of the vote, according to polls reported by SIC television channel, giving the party 96 seats, down from the 121 MPs the centre-left won in 2005.

The main opposition party, the Social Democrats (PSD), which is a force of the centre-right despite its name and the party of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, came in second with 29 percent, giving them a probable 78 seats in the 230-seat parliament.

However, the big winner of the campaign was the far-left, scooping up a combined 17.7 percent, with the Left Bloc, an alliance sometimes compared to Germany's Die Linke of anti-globalisation activists, ecologists, Trotskyists and Maoists, gaining 9.85 percent, giving it 16 seats, and the Portuguese Communist Party securing 7.9 percent and 15 seats. The rightist Popular Party also boosted its standing, climbing to 21 seats up from 12 in 2005 with its 10.5 percent.

Domestic analysts have attributed the victory of the left of the left to alienation amongst blue-collar workers, civil servants and young people from the the Socialists, who ahead of the economic crisis had imposed formidable public spending cuts that provoked massive protests, including a general strike. In the wake of the economic crisis, the Socialists appeared to have dusted off the Keynesian textbooks, but to little avail.

According to the Bank of Portugal, the economy is set to decline 3.5 percent in 2009, with unemployment on 9.1 percent and rising. Portugal is not however faring as badly as its Iberian neighbour, Spain, with unemployment at half the rate and below the EU average. The country also emerged from recession this year, with GDP growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter.

Both leading parties ahead of the election ruled out a grand coalition and the Socialists, the Left Bloc and the Communists have said they would not form a leftist coalition, although such a move would give the parties a comfortable 127-seat majority.

Abstention climbed in the election from 36.9 percent in 2005 to 41.1 percent.
Euobserver

Russia drops EU missile threat

Russia yesterday dropped a threat to place missiles on the borders of the European Union, a military source said, easing tensions after the US scrapped a controversial missile shield. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed the "correct and brave decision" by President Barack Obama to abandon the central Europe project and expressed hope that it would lead to further improvements in US-Russian ties.

The move to halt the threatened deployment of short range Iskander missiles in Russia's territory of Kaliningrad, announced to Interfax news agency by the military source, was Moscow's first concrete response to Obama's decision.

Meanwhile, Nato proposed a new era of co-operation with Russia, calling for joint work with Moscow and Washington on missile defence.

Barroso 2

Jose Manuel Barroso was re-elected for a second five-year term as European Commission by a clear majority in the European Parliament on Wednesday (16 September), putting an end to weeks of uncertainty and sabre rattling by his opponents in the EU house. Against many predictions, the centre-right Portuguese politician won an absolute majority of the 736-strong parliament hauling in 382 votes in his favour, 219 against and 117 abstentions.

A clearly delighted Mr Barroso, who received a bouquet of flowers from the Swedish EU presidency, thanked MEPs for their "expression of confidence" and pledged to work "with all political groups" in the parliament. Charged by critics with being a weak president too willing to bow to the wishes of large member states, Mr Barroso said his re-election gives the commission and its president "great authority." "I will use that [political] capital for more energy for Europe."

While pledging "loyalty" to member states, he said he would in future "challenge" those countries who are looking out for "strictly national interests." He refused to apologise for his leadership style, a point of strong criticism for his opponents, saying that building consensus and the art of compromise is the way Europe works.

Euobserver

Poland keen to shed anti-Russian image

Positive chemistry between Russia and Poland at a World War II remembrance event on Tuesday (1 September) could open a new chapter of realpolitik in bilateral ties, with implications for Poland's place in the EU.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish leader Donald Tusk on Tuesday morning spent 30 minutes chatting in a friendly manner in view of cameras on a pier in the Polish town of Sopot on the Baltic Sea coast.

The meeting - the first of its type in eight years - stood out next to ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in nearby Westerplatte, where around 20 European leaders gathered to pay respects. Mr Putin in an open letter in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza the same day held out the prospect of putting Russian-Polish relations on the same privileged footing as Russian-German ties. "The Russian-German partnership has become an example of reaching out to one another, of looking to the future while paying attention to past memories ...I am sure that Russian-Polish relations will sooner or later attain the same level," he wrote.

The Russian premier offered to open national archives on the Katyn massacre, where Russian soldiers in 1940 killed 21,768 Polish officers and intellectuals being held as prisoners of war. He also signed an agreement giving Polish ships passage to Polish waters - the Zalew Wislany - through a Russian-controlled gap in a Baltic Sea promontory.

For their part, Polish politicians avoided any Russia-critical remarks. Even the nationalistic Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, restrained himself to a muted allusion to Russia's 2008 partition of Georgia, saying that infringements of territorial integrity are "wrong also today." "Russia and Poland have a perspective of working together as partners, of building relations appropriate to two great European nations," Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said. "This [Mr Putin's letter] is the kind language that one partner should use with another."

Euobserver

EU to begin phasing out standard lightbulbs

The EU will start making the transition from power-draining lightbulbs to more energy efficient ones Tuesday, the European Commission said. Several nations including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines have already announced they will phase out or restrict sales of traditional bulbs as well. In 2007, President George W. Bush signed a bill that calls for the bulb to be phased out in the U.S. beginning in 2012.

The new European Union rules follow an agreement reached by the 27 EU governments last year to phase out the traditional incandescent lightbulb over three years starting this year to help European countries lower greenhouse gas emissions, the EU executive said Monday. This aims to curb climate change and to reduce energy bills. As of Tuesday, old standard frosted lightbulbs and clear bulbs of 100 watts and more will no longer be manufactured or imported into the EU as part of the plan. The measure is part of a series of energy-saving measures planned by the EU to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming and to reduce energy expenditure.

AP